Every morning I search the different news outlets online. Every day I wake up to a new Trump problem, Trump reboot, Trump misrepresentations covered by the news media as fawningly as a teenager longing after Taylor Swift. The breathless coverage, in its most intimate detail, is slanting our understanding of this incredibly important Presidential campaign.
In the top five news outlets today, the leading story was about a new re-shuffling of Trump's campaign. But stories about Clinton? Missing is the same level of coverage of Hillary Clinton's campaign. What happened to the equal media time standard? Or has our media become so controversy-driven, ratings-whorish that they want to create the news more than they report it.
The imbalance in coverage is disconcerting and problematic.
When one looks at the "forces" massing to get Hillary, you see a war cloud gathering that will create pain and suffering in our American psyche for years to come. Trump's campaign now has, in some capacity, Roger Ailes, the disgraced former head of Fox News, (alleged sexual harasser of at least one woman at the network); Stephen Banning from Breitbart Media, as anti-Clinton a media source as imaginable; Corey Lewandowski, a CNN talking head and an "informal" Trump confidante (and former campaign manager); and Julian Assange, the head of WikiLeaks, a vowed fighter for "truth" unless you decide to tilt the "truth" in favor of one candidate - and that candidate is not Hillary.
Anyone else getting a clue here? We have the voices of four strong media players marshaling their enormous media mouths against Hillary Clinton. War is coming, people - and our country is not ready. Four powerful men who want to destroy Hillary Clinton.
The blood bath in words against Hillary will be extreme. Destructive. Misogynistic. Sexist beyond the imagination. There will be lies that are so untrue - exaggerations of her actions to show her in the worst possible way and some. Allegations full of shock and awe. I am not being hysterical or doom and gloomish. It is real. Truth does not matter. Hate does. Divide and conquer does.
We will be surprised at the level of venomosity these attacks will have and upset at the efforts made to paint Hillary as less than a woman, not a champion of women or the disadvantaged. She will be called the gun thief wanting to steal everyone's guns. They will say she wants to let ISIS in the door (when in truth George W. did that). And we will have to rehash the same old stories about her husband.
Come November, we will have suffered an incredible destruction of our feeling of pride in this wonderful country, destruction to our love for "self-evident truths," and the shaking of our faith that we should work every day to bring "Liberty and Justice" to all. That those who need us most will be relegated to takers and users. In the end, this campaign will create a schism in our country very difficult to repair. We cannot allow that.
Hillary isn't the devil or a murderer. She is a woman who has achieved incredible levels of accomplishment while navigating a man's world (and every woman knows that real difficulty). Not perfect by any means, she is a politician, not your granny. She has more foreign relations experience in her pinky than anyone on the national stage. And foreign policy experience matters in our quickly shifting world. And seriously, would you want your granny to negotiate with the heads of North Korea or Russia? We need a powerful, smart, experienced President. We deserve no less.
I am convinced that Hillary Clinton will be elected President in November. Why? Because the silent majority of us do not embrace what Trump is offering. The silent majority who will go and vote in November and who have voted in every election. The silent majority that re-elected Bill Clinton and re-elected Barack Obama.
The silent majority who understands that progress comes in fits and starts and incrementally, and that being committed to the process of really making America great is about caring for our citizens, all of them, whether we agree with them or not. It's about "We The People" not Me, or I. We understand that sometimes the "needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the one".
But we will have to stand strong against the war of words to come. Stand strong and vote. Stand strong and hold our media accountable.
Our media will not be a source of real or educational news. It will be a source of fanboying and unsubstantiated mistruths. "Fair and balanced," real coverage about the facts has been replaced with innuendo, supposition or allegation.
And people, pay attention. Don't look away. Person up. This is our country we are fighting for. Look beyond the distortion, the misrepresentations. Don't believe something because it is convenient. Don't let this campaign be controlled by a few sources of information. Expect better, demand more. Do your job as a citizen of this great country.